Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities
January 19-20, 2022
Day 1: How Did We Get Here?
I. 10 AM – Welcome
Mildred Solomon, EdD, President, The Hastings Center
Reed Tuckson, MD, elected member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, co-founder of the Black Coalition against Covid, and former Executive Vice President and Chief of Medical Affairs for UnitedHealth Group, will make opening remarks.
II. 10:10 AM – The History of Unequal Opportunity
Isabel Wilkerson, author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and The Warmth of Other Suns will describe the Great Migration and her research on caste systems via stories about the lives of the people featured in her books.
Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law, will discuss the history of the federal, state, and local laws and policies that actively created segregation and other inequities.
Mildred Solomon will serve as moderator.
11:50 AM: *** Break *** (10 minutes)
III. 12:00 PM – How Unequal Opportunity Created Unequal Health
David Williams, MPD, PhD, Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will connect the history described by Wilkerson and Rothstein to the health inequities we see today. How do federal and state policies, residential segregation, poorer schools, and the wealth gap translate into poorer health outcomes?
Michele Goodwin, JD, professor and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, University of California, Irvine, will serve as moderator.
Closing Session, Day One
12: 50 PM Michele Goodwin will offer reflections on the day’s program.
1:00 PM Day One ends.
Day 2: Justice in Health and Health Care – by Design
I. 10 AM – Welcome and Overview
Mildred Solomon, EdD, President, The Hastings Center
Philip Alberti, PhD, Senior Director of Health Equity Research and Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Health Justice, AAMC
II. 10:10 AM – The Political Determinants of Health
Daniel Dawes, JD, Executive Director, Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, was a key architect of the Affordable Care Act. In this talk, Dawes will delve into the themes of his influential book The Political Determinants of Health. Drawing on his firsthand experi- ence helping to shape major federal policies, Dawes argues that political determinants of health create the social drivers that affect all other dynamics of health.
Philip Alberti will serve as moderator.
III. 11:00 AM – The Evidence Base for Health Equity: What We Know Works
To develop evidence in support of interventions and policies that will shift entire communities toward health requires asking the right research questions, co-creating with the right stakeholders, and ensuring research-derived innovations are trusted and equitably accessible. Three national experts on what health equity research can achieve within and beyond our health care system will discuss what we know (but have not yet implemented), and how building authentic, bidirectional relationships with patient and communities in service of science and racial justice can improve the health of all.
Philip Alberti will offer opening remarks and serve as moderator.
Panelists: Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, Senior Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence, Vanderbilt University; Kirsten Bibbins- Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS, Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco; and Marshall Chin, MD, MPH, Associate Director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, The University of Chicago Medical Center
IV. 11:40 AM – Addressing Health Inequities through Law and Policy
Building on the foundation laid in Day 1’s discussion of how laws and policy influence health, this panel discussion will feature experts in health policy who will discuss opportunities for advancing racial justice through health and science policy reform. Key topics will include policy solutions for addressing racial inequities at the population level, how seemingly race-neutral (“colorblind”) policies can perpetuate and exacerbate health inequities, and ways healthcare institutions can break the cycle of economic deprivation in the neighborhoods they serve.
Emily Cleveland Manchanda, MD, MPH, Director of Social Justice Education and Implementation, AMA, will offer opening remarks and serve as moderator.
Panelists: Paula Lantz, PhD, Professor of Public Policy and Health Management & Policy, University of Michigan; Thea James, MD, Associate Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of the Mission, Boston Medical Center; Amol Navathe, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Medicine and a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania
12:20 PM *** Break ***
V. 12:30 PM – Finding and Fixing Structural Barriers to Equitable Healthcare in Clinic
It is well known that implicit bias leads to delayed and worse treatment for patients of color. Equitable treatment is also stymied by structural factors, often the result of policy, research, education, common protocols, and everyday habits. Three distinguished speakers will talk about strategies that can help health care live up to its ethical obligations.
Susan Dorr Goold, MD, MHSA, MA, Director, University of Michigan Health Policy Path of Excellence, will offer opening remarks and serve as moderator.
Panelists: Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, MD, PhD, Director of Center for Reducing Health Dis- parities, University of California, Davis; Tom Sequist, Md, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, Mass General Brigham; Michelle E. Morse, MD, Chief Medical Officer, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
VI. 1:10 PM – From the Walls to the Halls: Changing Health Professions Education to Advance Health Equity
Health professions education is taking bold steps to modify its mission, vision, values and policies. The goal is to equip the next generation of health professionals with an understanding of health professionals’ responsibilities in identifying and addressing health inequities in partnership with colleagues, patients, and communities. This session highlights national leaders in medicine and nursing who are working with ingenuity towards the educational shifts necessary for health equity to be valued in the delivery of care as a primary commitment, rather than as an afterthought.
Rumay Alexander, EdD, RN, FAAN, Scholar-In-Residence, ANA, will offer opening remarks and serve as moderator.
Panelists: Ann-Gel Palermo, Dr PH, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclu- sion, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Marilyn Oermann, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, Professor of Nursing, Duke University School of Nursing, Peggy Chinn, RN, PhD, FAAN, Professor Emerita of Nursing, University of Connecticut; Priya Garg, Associate Dean, Boston University School of Medicine; Alec Calac, MD and PhD Student, University of California, San Diego; Malika Sharma, MD, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Department of Medicine.